Then Booker played through a left groin injury in his 58-point effort against the Pelicans that ended with a 118-114 home win Dec. 17. He missed Phoenix’s next three games before returning against the Denver Nuggets on Christmas Day, but re-aggravated the injury within five minutes of 128-125 overtime road loss and didn’t return.

Booker also suffered a groin injury two years ago this month December 2022. He missed three games before he tried to give it a go in the Suns' Christmas loss a Denver, but only played the first four minutes before he was taken out for good. Then he missed 11 more games.